Part of a feature about the archaeology of slavery on St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, from the International Slavery Museum's website. Before long these enslaved cooks took the roles that had once been occupied by white indentured servants. For more than 200 years, Southern plantation owners relied on enslaved Africans and their descendants to work in their fields and houses, to help raise their children, and to provide food and . Most slave purchasing reflected this tension between necessity, luxury, and potential danger. Want to read more articles just like these? Ploughing cotton (detail). Sugar plantation in the British colony of Antigua, 1823. "Slave owners sent back and got seeds for what the slaves were used to eating, because they weren't used to the food here in America. Fruit as Food and Medicine Orange County Observer July 7, 1883, U.S. House of Representative Speech of North Carolina on Food Adulteration, H. H. Patterson Account Books from the 1880s, A Cure for Consumption by Jillian Fellows, Catherine Roulhacs Recipe for Infant Food, Foodways During Enslavement and War Bob Paynes Object, Letter from Nathan P. Neal to Aaron and Elizabeth Neal, September 2, 1857, Letter of Charles P. Mallett to Charles B. Mallett, 18 April 1865, Letter from Elisha Mitchell to Maria North, February 11, 1818, October 12, 1863 Letter from Judge William H. Battle to his son, Richard Battle, Food wanted for North Carolina Solders in the trenches around Petersburg Riley Bechter, Circular from UNC President to Parents on Student Alcohol Use, September 30 1840, President James K. Polks Visit to Chapel Hill (1847), Hireling Labor and Slave Labor in Farmers Journal, Raleigh, May 1854, Mrs. Anne Ruffin Camerons Red Cabbage Pickle, Decadence and Opulence in Smart Society Dinners, Fight Taken Up for Oleomargarine, The German Club & a Tradition of Cotillion at UNC, The Carolina Medical Journal: Health in the Age of Decadence. Morning meals were prepared and consumed at daybreak in the slaves' cabins. A reason many did not make it to the colonies at all was disease and illness. But by the 1800s, African dishes began appearing in these books. Being the power center of the world at the time, they exploited the New World and Africa to industrialize. Others hoped that property ownership might induce enslaved people to work harderfor themselves and, by extension, their masters. That meant the slaves could plant for themselves," says. 2, 149; Ibid., 12, pt. Slaveholders had long debated the merits of granting small luxuries to their charges during the holiday seasonextra or special types of food, trinkets and accessories like ribbons or penknives, extra plugs of tobacco, or even drams of liquor. It is to ignore the story of Chef Hercules, or the real story of Aunt Jemima. Its double-edgedfull of painbut also of pride. However, they did have cornbread. I did find references to collard greens and cabbage in the course of my research, yes. KATHLEEN HILLIARD is an associate professor of history at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and the author of Masters, Slaves, and Exchange: Power's Purchase in the Old South (2014). [7] Hilliard, Masters, Slaves, and Exchange, 6993. [3]. In Nigeria, the Igbo people made a practice of burying their root vegetables to store them for long periods of time. But from its most famous to its anonymous practitioners, the story of Southern cuisine is inseparable from the story of American racism. The plantation system peaked in the first half of the 18th century, but later on, during the middle of 19th century, there was a significant increase in demand for cotton from European countries, which means there was a need for expanding the plantation in the southern parts of United States. Enslaved men and women began the year with a set amount of cash listed in Towns log book, deductions being made over the course of the year for disciplinary breaches or property loss. Sources are exceptionally scarce and contemporary recipes are nonexistent, but we can reconstruct some idea of what the table in the slaves quarters might have offered to maintain these unfortunate souls in their labors. 2. Gibbs also mentions that the most industrious slaves were allowed to have their own gardens and chickens to tend to, and were able to sell their crops/goods for their own profit. There were also many other crops that traveled as well such as watermelon, yams, guinea . Take, for example, Georgia planter James Towns, whose end-of-year celebrations always included a pay day for good behavior. The trick to cooking okra is to cook it quickly. According to the 1840 United States Census, one out of every four families in Virginia owned slaves. As Frederick Douglas recounts I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog. Seemingly unimportant trades ruined old relations and wove together new webs of economic, social, political, and cultural life in a thousand stressed communities. While it is a shameful chapter in our national past, the fact of slavery during the Revolutionary Era is inescapable, and part of understanding how the people of this nascent country ate is exploring how the slaves were fed. For masters and bondpeople alike, the internal economy both challenged the institution of slavery and shored it up. The monopolies were insured high profits from the sale of plantation products by having cheap labours, forced recruitment, peonage and debt servitude. 90. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods. Miles places the number of enslaved people held by Cherokees at around 600 at the start of the 19 th century and around 1,500 at the time of westward removal in 1838-9. House slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved Africans relegated to performing domestic work on American slave plantations. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. At this time, Europe was starting to industrialize, and it needed a lot of materials to manufacture goods. Slaveholders lamented spending on alcohol most of all, complaining that it caused disorder on the plantation and hindered productivity, but memoirs, slave narratives, and court records indicate that rum and liquor were highly sought. x}Y%q)kOIf5WN'|2k@[46 > TY4!4BF/>xu~}q%xdG?4O/ W?yqyP ^jrq:|'1Yv>=~uuZo? Underneath the slave ship's decks, Africans were held chest-to-chest and could not do much moving. They overlook that slavery, which affected millions of blacks in America, was enforced by a system of sustained brutality, including actsand constant threatsof torture, rape and murder. The plantation owners then turned to enslaved Africans for labor. In 1740 the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural development by increasing slave imports and regulating agricultural exports. What did the slaves eat on the plantation?Slavery and the Making of America . Indigofera was a major crop cultivated during the 18th century, in Venezuela, Guatemalaand Haiti until the slave rebellion against France that left them embargoed by Europe and India in the 19th and 20th centuries. The juice from the crushing of the cane was then boiled or clarified until it crystallized into sugar. I delivered the talk to an audience of 30 at the Maier Museum of Art in Lynchburg, Virginia. Required fields are marked *. "Transatlantic Slave Trade". What did slaves eat on plantations? Collards would probably be classed as cool and dry, and would nicely balance the warm and wet nature of the rice and beans. Buyers on the black market, then, had to alter behavior so that they could consume goods without discovery. Once a task was finished, that persons labor was complete for the day. Collard leaves are wrapped around a savory rice filling with toasted pecans. Just found your series! A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. Should they free themselves individually or wait until they had saved enough to buy kin as well? But the country began recalibrating its memories of black cooking even before the Civil War, erasing the brutality and hardships of slavery from a story of Old Southern graciousness. Edit View history The health of slaves on American plantations was a matter of concern to both slaves and their owners. West African rice and beans dishes, called waakye in Ghana and thiebou niebe in Senegal, became the Souths Hoppin John. [i] Rutledge, Sarah. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858. Their comfort is promoted, he reasoned, and it removes the temptation to visit dram shops. Most importantly, it affords the master an excellent opportunity of judging the thrift of each negro.[10] Here was a powerful opportunity for masters not only to monitor slave spending but to criticize it, too. 30. Too dear to purchase legally, watches in particular found a ready trade, highlighting an important characteristic in the consumption of stolen goods. B@k E0ZCl#a=y/%7rpVV{@h`zh-IFOVdRi9~ijt4z{;)'B1[tK [2R-mLhLCdF4jXp01]'7 *J0TzH}1dhl0&v7oN\"7nHi g r#H]lxVooIH*m'z!doXZ@WJFpDm;zr~ozJZ@Q,@|]4cv These corn mushes and breads became the Soul Food staples of grits and cornbread. What do slaves want with money? he asked rhetorically. The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? A food historian, Twitty re-creates the meals slaves would have made on plantations using 18th-century tools and ingredients - some of which we eat today. In December 1864, other sounds seemed equally troubling. The Bantu people originated in Central Africa, near Nigeria and the Congo. Over 400 years, nearly 13 million Africans were kidnapped and imprisoned on European slave ships bound for the Americas. But their enslaved ancestors were forced to eat whatever was provided to them by the slave owners. Franklin Street and its Changing Foodways, 2018, Average Age of Death and Average Income Across Durham County, 2014, The Reputation of Carolina Inn Restaurants, UNC Department of Nutrition Cookbook 1983, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen Owner Interview, 2017, The Expansion of Chinese Restaurants in Chapel Hill During the 1980s, Vincenzo Marrone Interview, The IP3 Story, Student Resistance to Labor Rights Movements (2005), Student at Vending Machines, Carolina Union, 1983, Foundational and Colonial Culinary Encounters, Thomas Hariot Book Excerpt (1590)- Maddie Dyer, Letter from Florence OSullivan to Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Instructions to William Berkeley Concerning the Settlement of Carolina, Hannah Wolleys Original Orange Pudding Recipe, Turkey and Deer Bone Awls from Lower Sauratown, John Whites Secotan Indian Village Watercolor Painting, The Journeys of Needham and Arthur Through the Piedmont, John Smiths observations on Native Virginia Plants and Native American Food Practices, Day Book 1774 No. 5 0 obj All rights reserved. "If we want to understand current relationships, then we need to go back to these very uncomfortable pasts and explore how Africans actually contributed to American culture. Beef and hawgs and bacon and syrup and sugar and flour was plenty. This cornbread was crumbled into the bottom of the bowl to soak up the last bits of savory flavor. The indigo crop was grown for making blue indigo dye in the pre-industrial age. They adapted these to the harsh living conditions on plantations. At the top of that list is Atlanta chef Linton Hopkins, who has concocted several ways to serve her peas at his acclaimed southern-upscale Restaurant Eugene, including in his version of Hoppin' John. Your Privacy Rights Slaves could cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. Food supplies The plantation owners provided their enslaved Africans with weekly rations of salt herrings or mackerel, sweet potatoes, and maize, and sometimes salted West Indian turtle.The enslaved Africans supplemented their diet with other kinds of wild food. These were compiled by slaveholding women, whose responsibilities sat firmly in the domestic sphere, and are now housed in historical societies throughout the country. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. The slaves then had to adapt their African rice dishes to fit the limited ingredients they had in America. A mans world? The remainder of the letter consists of detailed explanations of medical care and resources made available to Gibbs slaves. licorice. F. from the Cameron Papers, Letter from John and Ebenezer Pettigrew to Charles Pettigrew, October 3, 1795, Lenoir Family Papers Account of Corn, 1785, Business Invoice from the Cameron Papers, 1774, Fiddle Headed Teaspoon, late 1700s / early 1800s, Distilling Method for Corn Whiskey Lenoir Papers (1790s), Newspaper Advertisement from The Pennsylvania Gazette (Dec 5, 1771), Accounting Record of Spice Purchases for the Household of William Lenoir (May 30, 1772), Sunflower Oil Recipe and Mangel-Wurzel Cultivation, Financial Document The Lenoir Family Papers, Excerpt from A Tour in the United States of America, Blums Farmers and Planters Almanac for the year 1870, Star Brand Fertilizers Advertisement in The Danbury Reporter, Liquid standard presented to UNC in 1883, Planting Fruit Trees to Secure Success by Abigail Bowdish, The Bennehan Familys Sugar and Rum Purchases, Mary Ann Bryan Masons Mrs. Masons New Cookery. Then, other foods made available to slaves are listed, including: bacon, molasses, potatoes, poultry, and eggs. Of course, nobody at that time had any sense of vitamins or trace minerals, but some cookbooks of the period do have lengthy discourses on the importance of balance of different sorts in ones diet. Slaves planted the seeds of favorite foods they were forced to leave behind. With the 19th-century abolition of slavery, plantations continued to grow sugar cane, but sugar beets, which can be grown in temperate climates, increased their share of the sugar market. The cooking traditions of the slaves were, as with most newcomers to these shores, a creative amalgamation of what they knew from their homelands and what was available to them here. theamericanhistorian@oah.org, 2023 Organization of American Historians, Masters, Slaves, and Exchange: Power's Purchase in the Old South. 2, 23; Ibid., 3, pt. What good could it possibly do them? More importantly, he must have thought, What good does a slave with money do me? Plenty, he and others like him imagined. A slave who owned chickens or pigs would not run away, some argued. Purchased most often were cloth and sewing suppliescalico, cambric, muslin, shirting, and occasional bits of silkand ready-made clothing and accessories such as shoes, caps, hats, coats, dresses, shawls, shirts, and cravats. Sweet potatoes are hearty vegetables that grow well in less ideal soil, which made them an ideal crop for enslaved people and lower class whites. Advertisers leaned on characters like Aunt Jemima and Rastus, stereotypical black domestics, drawn from minstrel song. [5], Western Europe was the final destination for the plantation produce. During the time of slavery, African Americans brought with them the food traditions from their native lands. [2] Historians and anthropologists across the Caribbean and the United States have explored the mechanics and meaning of the slaves internal economy. These animals can sniff it out. New York, New York: Berg, 2012. This red pea, which originated in Africa and is the original ingredient in the region's quintessential rice-and-beans dish Hoppin' John, is just one of the many heritage crops from the African continent receiving new attention from farmers, chefs, scientists, and food historians. Purchased clothes were garish and gaudy, they scoffed. Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. Photo by Henry P. Moore. Much more than nutrition, cooking was a way to preserve their culture. Southern foodenslaved cooks foodhad been written into the American cultural profile. These slaveholders hoped to co-opt the consumer process and turn it into a management tool.[8]. Think leafy greens and black-eyed. stream Modern chefs have rediscovered this grain and are now putting it on their menus. What documentation exists of what rations slaveholders provided is typically from later periods, but it would be in their own interest to ensure that their labor force was well-nourished enough to work effectively. However, the historical roots of both dishes have so much to teach us about the slave experience that its worth including them together here. Fewer than one-third of Southern families owned slaves at the peak of slavery prior to the Civil War. Hercules was taught by the well-known New York tavern keeper and culinary giant Samuel Frances, who mentored him in Philadelphia; Hemings traveled with Jefferson to Paris, where he learned French-style cooking. "Okra is connected indelibly with the American South," says Harris. For men and women so bent on control, slaves with cashand vendors ready to take itposed risks far beyond the material, however. But from the 1820s onward, we see planters strategizing further, introducing choiceor the illusion of choiceas a way to tamp down long-term discontent. Take [your] negroes to the nearest dry goods store (do not let them go alone) and let them select such things as suit their fancies, he advised. These cooks knew their craft. In fact, okra is what helps thicken gumbo. The system had a good many benefits, as Georgia slaveholder Thomas Clay explained. Plantation slavery was not exclusive to the Americas. This was called mush. All de possums and rabbits and fish and such wer jus dat much more"(5) Clothing for slave children was in general very basic and generally consisted of a smock like garment worn by both boys and girls. Tableware, too, attracted slave cash, as did toiletries, watches, and tools.[7]. Serve with plain white rice, perhaps cooked with a little extra water, so that it softens a bit more than usual, and if you have it, dash some pepper sauce over it to liven up the flavor. Enslaved cooks brought this cuisine its unique flavors, adding ingredients such as hot peppers, peanuts, okra, and greens. Watches, in other words, were meant to be displayed. Cultivation of sugar had to follow a precise scientific system to profit from the production. Perhaps the easiest way to monitor slave spending was through the operation of a plantation store. Journal of the American Revolution is the leading source of knowledge about the American Revolution and Founding Era. There is merit to this argument, as slaves consumer behavior tied slaveholders in knots. Well cook three representative dishes, each of which can help us understand a slightly different aspect of the food experiences of the Revolutionary Era slave. Others crafted brooms or baskets. % [2] The number of slaves in the 15 States was just shy of 4 million in a total population 12.4 million and the percentage was 32% of the population. She is a doctoral student at the University of Georgia. The author of the letter (slave owner Robert W. Gibbs) is described in the newspaper article as one of the most intelligent physicians of the South and a gentleman of the highest personal character and consideration. In the actual letter Gibbs also establishes his own qualifications for speaking about the treatment of southern slaves by stating that he has cared for several thousands of slaves in his lifetime. How did enslaved people earn money and what did they buy? The 100 Best American Revolution Books of All Time, Family Dinner: Soup, Molasses Bread & Jeffersons Meringues, Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution, This Week on Dispatches: Gene Procknow on Ethan Allen and Revolutionary-Era Newspapers. SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York. But cooks wielded great power: As part of the front stage of plantation culture, they carried the reputations of their enslaversand of Virginiaon their shoulders. The Slave Experience: Living .Jul 8, 2019Weekly food rations -- usually corn . A sure indicator that theyre done is that they start to leak caramelized sugars into the pan. Do let me know what you think of the recipes that you try. Honor that past with gratitude and unity. The answers to these questions depend on where a person was enslaved and what kind of work she or he performed. Boiling ground grains into a porridge called polenta was a longtime Roman and Italian practice, which they quickly adapted to corn when that originally came over from America. Researcher Alicia Cromwell says one major challenge is "studying the silences," a phrase coined by Harris, which forces researchers to engage in detective-style deductions to piece together a more complete view of history in the absence of primary documents like diaries and letters written by slaves. In 1786, Washington noted that his plantation produced enough woolens to satisfy his needs. [3] George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, 41 vols. cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Plantation, "How Slavery Helped Build a World Economy", http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_42.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slave_plantation&oldid=1115516973. 2: 21; Booker T. Washington and Frank Beard, An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work (1901), 1617; Rawick, American Slave, 2, pt. The slaves working the sugar plantation were caught in an unceasing rhythm of arduous labor year after year. The slaves would have to wake up at 4 o'clock and work in the fields until sunset. These dishes traveled with captured West Africans on slave ships, and into the kitchens of Virginias elite. %PDF-1.4 5U67n 3e7o_y$( +_* %YqYV/P)'.M These purchases took careful planning. 6 cups (1.25 liter) water What the Slaves Ate. However, grilled and roasted okra make delicious side dishes. This week I was reviewing Muster, Payrolls and List of Effectives for Capt Gross Scruggs company of the Fifth Virginia. During the 19th century, there were moments of widespread fear that these cooks would poison them, and we know from court records and other documents that on at least a few occasions enslaved cooks did slip poisons like hemlock into their masters food. Blacks wasted their money, masters opined, or bought goods impractical for their lowly lives. Life was harsh for enslaved people, and as a result, many people resisted slavery through. Weekly food rations usually corn meal, lard, some meat, molasses, peas, greens, and flour were distributed every Saturday. Plantation owners would ration food in order to limit the power of slaves. Number of slaves in the Lower South: 2,312,352 (47% of total population) 4,919 million. As small as they were, these potato holes allowed a tiny sense of privacy and self control in a life that rarely had boundaries. But now, the Examiner and the Whig warned, auctioneers patter announced something else entirely, another symptom of the breaking down of the barriers that, until this war, kept the negro in his proper sphere. Enslaved men and women had taken to gathering at the auctions, using grossly improper language in the presence of, and even to, white women. Worse, ladies and gentlemen at auctions [were] forced to bid in competition with bondpeople, men and women who audaciously monopolize[d] the most eligible positions and claim[ed] the nod of the auctioneer. As white Richmonders sold off possessions to make ends meet in hard-pressed times, the citys slaves were going shopping. While the missus may have helped design the menu, or provided some recipes, it was the enslaved cooks who created the meals that made Virginia, and eventually the South, known for its culinary fare and hospitable nature. 2014. My favorite plant-based recipes for corn are Roasted Corn with Garlic Shallot Buttah and Peppery Corn Grits with Tomato Jam. Describing holidays past, Esther Davis, a South Carolina planters daughter, recalled that in Camdens business district, those three days were given up to the negroes. Merchants angled for enslaved customers: the few stores that were open, were intended just for this trade and did a thriving business. Indeed, she noted, the foundations of some small fortunes were laid in those same small stores with their stocks of hardware, crockery, beads and brass jewelry, calico and bandana handkerchiefs, candy, etc. [6], Much of what we know about slave spending is anecdotal, but scattered ledgers from rural stores and outposts provide a glimpse of what and how slaves consumed. . However, they closely resembled the yams harvested in West Africa. My angry audience member was likely raised on the old enslaved-cook narrative in which these images took root, where the cook was loyal, passive, and purportedly happya non-threatening being whose ultimate goal was to help a white woman fulfill her own domestic vision.